Category Archives: Cases

The good folks over at Ars Technica tested a screen protector made of bulletproof glass. First, the screen protector took some abuse from a screw driver. Then, they actually shot it. While the screen protector protected the device from the screw driver, it isn’t, in fact, bulletproof.

The SurfacePad case — a nifty iPad accessory from the folks over at Twelve South — is now available for the iPad mini. The case combines a front cover that makes use of the magnets in the iPad mini, as well as an adhesive back to offer a little more protection than what Apple’s solution offers. The whole case is made of leather, and goes for $69.99 in one of three colors (red, black, or white) on Twelve South’s website. If you’re in the market, I wholeheartedly recommend this case — Twelve South makes excellent accessories.

Apple’s official, first-party leather case looks like a fantastic product. The price isn’t too high — though still higher than what most would pay for a case, but I’ll excuse that because leather — and the quality looks great. How is the case in everyday use? Is it worth throwing down the money, or is someone better off spending that money on a cheaper, third-party plastic case on Amazon?

A couple years back, Apple introduced a new form of cases, bumpers. Originally designed for the 4/4S, the bumper case was a minimalistic design that surrounded the iPhone but didn’t cover up the design queues set by Sir Ive. Designed by M decided to go out and make their own bumper case, this one made out of aluminum to match the design of the iPhone. From an aesthetic standpoint, it’s a beautiful case. (more…)

Apple has, so far, been the only major manufacturer to not adopt NFC. NFC, or Near Field Communication, offers a low-power way to send information between two points. This has made it useful in payments, though it hasn’t yet become a standard in many countries. A new case from Incipio and AT&T hopes to change that, as it adds NFC to the iPhone. (more…)

Apple is a very controlling company, particularly with its line of iPhones and iPod touches. That’s typically served them well: the control allows them to sit at a premium place in the market. However, it seems that their strict guidelines are backfiring in at least one way.

Announced at WWDC 2013 as an iOS 7 feature, many people looked forward to game controllers built exclusively for iOS. The first wave hit in November, and they were received with harsh criticism for build quality and supported titles being improperly configured. The situation has improved slightly, with certain titles being updated to enhance gamepad support, but the build quality is still lacking. The lack of quality hardware is due to Apple’s mandate that gamepad creators must use specific, expensive components. This means that the manufacturers cut corners in assembly, and in other ways.

The controller program is also limited in other, odd ways:

There are other limitations of the program as well. For instance, the d-pads must be one circular button, opposed to just a raised cross shape or separate buttons for up, down, right, and left that you find on PlayStation and Xbox controllers and that many gamers prefer. The requirements also extend to the color, labeling and layout of the face buttons, thumbsticks, triggers, etc. It’s all meant to control quality and make it easy for developers to update apps to support all controllers, but in some areas Apple’s controller specification might not be strict enough.

Hopefully this situation improves over the coming year as Apple can tweak its policies and other manufacturers can enter the ring, all while developers work to make better use of the gamepad API.

I’m a fan of Truffol, an up-and-coming manufacturer of mobile accessories. I reviewed their Signature Classic, which I thought was an excellent high-end case that offered great protection and a wonderful design, but with one drawback for iPhone 5S owners.

This time, Truffol is back with their Autograph line of skins. Featuring a fantastically-slim leather design that protects the back of your iPhone and adds some “gripiness” to the aluminum and glass back of the iPhone 5 and 5S, the Autograph line is my new favorite skin for the iPhone.

CES has, for the last few years, been a source of dozens of new Apple product accessories. That trend has continued, and one of the best new accessories to come out is Mophie’s latest case. The design of the case looks almost identical to their Juice Pack Helium line, which is already available. As anyone who has a Juice Pack Helium knows, the case has some empty space at the bottom, in order for it to connect to Apple’s lightning port and provide extended power.

The new case, named the Space Pack, includes a 1,700 mAh battery to allow you to charge your device up. However, and more interestingly, it also comes with 16 or 32 GB of storage, where you can save movies, music, photos, and other media. Mophie will release a companion app that allows you to take advantage of this extra space.

The cases will be available on March 14 for $149.99 or $179.99 for the 16 or 32 GB model, respectively.

Typo Products, backed by Ryan Seacrest, recently unveiled its first iPhone keyboard case, which is due to ship this month for $99. The product is a complete case, but it covers the bottom part of an iPhone 5 or 5S with a physical keyboard, which connects via Bluetooth. Overall, the accessory looks very interesting.

However, BlackBerry today announced a lawsuit against the company behind the case.

“This is a blatant infringement against BlackBerry’s iconic keyboard, and we will vigorously protect our intellectual property against any company that attempts to copy our unique design,” BlackBerry said in a statement.

BlackBerry holds various design and engineering patents on this type of keyboard, and it has used these patents in the past to keep competing products out of certain markets. The Typo case does resemble a BlackBerry keyboard in some ways, though this particular lawsuit feels like a dying company grasping at any option it can find to make some money or to maintain an advantage in the market.

During the June of 2012, V-Moda had released a headphone DAC/AMP specifically designed for the iPhone at that time, the 4S. The DAC/AMP was a good concept at the time as portables were becoming popular in the audio world due to the likes of Apple, Samsung, Google, etc. However, the timing couldn’t have been more crippled because a few months later, the iPhone 5 was announced and released. Since this 650 dollar AMP was only 4S compatible, it wouldn’t work with the new iPhone; essentially making it obsolete. So how did V-Moda Remedy this problem? (more…)